Eutelsat, the satellite organisation composed of public telecommunication operators in Europe, has rejected a plan to open up access to the pan-European satellite system. At the moment only Eutelsat members have direct access to the system and other satellite service providers have to buy or lease transponder capacity through Eutelsat members – a rule that many providers have complained is anti-competitive. The European Commission’s Green Paper proposals to open up the satellite market depend on unrestricted access to the satellite capacity, but in a meeting to finalise its response to the paper Eutelsat decided it could address the needs of a liberalised satellite market within existing rules. In the UK, the Department of Trade & Industry has gone some way to meet the complaints of non-public service providers by setting up a UK Eutelsat signatory office which stands at arms length from British Telecommunications Plc’s commercial satellite operation, and this is the type of system that Eutelsat proposes to adopt. However the UK service providers still argue that this does not give equitable access to the space segment as, unlike British Telecom, they do not have direct access to space capacity. The Trade & Industry Department agrees that service providers should be on an equal footing with the public telephone operators and should gain direct access to capacity, and this was the recommendation put to Eutelsat by the European Commission in its Green Paper. Eutelsat says it will not allow any new members into the organisation or pave the way for direct access, arguing that it has to maintain control over the space segment for it to be effectively managed.
